C B ROGERS NO. 2 PLANER MATCHER

C B ROGERS NO 2 PLANER/MATCHER

This is the C B Rogers No 2 Planer/Matcher preparing to leave Longview, Washington. The machine had come out of an old mill at a confluence of two timbered draws a few miles outside of town. I am told the machine “came around the Horn”, that is to say, prior to our rail service from the East, and prior to the Panama Canal.

This is the operator’s side. I find this shot interesting because it suggests two color tones in the paint residue which doesn’t show in reality. The covers that top each roll column pair are removed for most of these pictures. So they wouldn’t bounce off and into traffic on the Interstate.

We have arrived at the Matcher Museum. In the shade of the chestnut tree. This is the back. Classic, typical six roll drive works. It is clear here the double belting of the lower cutterhead as well as the upper. The belting here will be the also typical over/under arrangement. No twist. The out feed bed is missing. A beer can holds its place. Those two holes in the end panel were where braces supported the outfeed bed.

This the end view. The lower spindle has pillow blocks added outside the babbitt caps which is great for un-doing. The outfeed platen adjusts to suit the knife projection. The pressure bar column swings away to the left to access the knives. the original plaque is missing. In its place was a plaque from Chas. C. Moore & Co., Engineers, of San Francisco. This is the guy who was a big part of the Panama Exposition. I have no idea what their connection to this machine was. Maybe they consulted the rebuild of the machine.

This is the operator’s side again.

Operator’s side from other end.

The tail shaft. The upper head drive pulleys will need replacing. The originals were serpentine. I will need to find some. A pair.

And all around now.

Detail of some of the fine trim details in the castings at the first column.

Gothic arch.

Matcher clip adjustment (from infeed end), top head thicknessing adjustment, broken, feed drive pulley. the column caps are back on the far columns. The pressure bar and chip breaker have been repaired a few times.

Locks and stuff to fix. Nothing moves on this thing. It spent a lot of time outdoors. A lot of time.

ASSESSING THE PROJECT

First thing is to get the knives out. If we can’t get the knives out might as well stop now. So I got the hold down to elevate high enough to swing over that bolt in the left base of the column. I think this feature may have been one of the patents listed at the front of the machine. This took a bit of patience.

There is also a outfeed guide and maybe roller missing here. One day some one will send me a picture of what is missing. There has to be another Rogers around somewhere?

What a wreck. And I think another guide rail bar is missing in front of the infeed platen.

An impact wrench was just what the doctor ordered for removing the knives. I think this head is salvageable. The rust was worse on the top as it sat. I am thinking this thing may have sat for fifty years. The journals are bad but not as bad as I thought. I am puzzled that the two bearings are not yoked together. I do recall reading sales literature for later planers and moulders in which a point is made that the boxes are combined by a yoke arrangement. There is a tab broken off both sides but I am sure that was for the chip breaker/hood. Until I find another machine to compare, it may remain a mystery. I need to research early planers. Maybe relying on the elevation screws and the spindle for alignment was common practice.

As I start in on this, I am noticing that in spite of its weight, aspects of the machine are rather fine and lightly made. I also think the machine was dropped at some point.

The pressure shoe has been forge repaired. I will probably cast a new one from a model using the original part less the repair.

This is the flare wanted on a square head. This may have been a tapped head, at least on two sides, at one time, made into a four side slotted head later.

This is one of the big projects on this machine: reconstructing an original chip breaker. The engravings suggest the original but I have a lot of research to do. The only original part here are the two side brackets. The part is upside down in this picture.

The lugs into which this swings from the bearing boxes are broken. So the flat bar substitute was made to be bolted at the bearing caps.

This will be the biggest challenge I foresee at this point.

NEXT SEASON

The sun is out and it’s time to start getting things to move on this rusted hulk.

This is the bottom head and its pressure bar. The bar is the feature in one of the patents. The swivel. Now that it is off and I finally got the miter gears to slide on their shaft I can take it apart and clean it up.

To clean the slots I used sacrifice bolts and drove them through to clean the slots. It worked better than expected. The head takes 9/16 bolts. i think I will have the opening cleaned up to give 5/8″. The surfaces are ugly but measure true and are planed right. The journals are real bad. They will be turned down. Once I get the pulleys off. And the ball bearings.

I have removed the pillow blocks and all the weldment that supported them. It appears they raised the shaft slightly and left the caps to ride loose. Which left room for lots of rust.

These two bearing blocks are bolted to the frame and are delicate castings. Very little iron holds them together. They serve as lower bearing box and mounting block for the pressure bar and they also carry the platens.

This is the frame beneath them. Very pretty casting.

This is likely why the pillow blocks were added. This will be a fussy fix. Plus the ears that confine the platens are also broke. I think they wedge in. Hence the stress. Even a new casting would still have the same design weakness. I may reduce the number of cap bolts from 6 to 4.

FREEING THE FEED WORKS

The idlers had retained enough grease that they came free with not much work. Just some soaking and time is all. With them out, I could gently work the feed rolls at each station.

The outfeed station was really stuck. So I pulled an expansion idler, another part of the patent, the links from what I understand, and worked each individually.

Missing teeth are frequent, but repaired with bolts or rod. I believe that chips or knots in the works may be culprit. And also perhaps earlier work on the machine pulling gears.

This stud bracket carries the intermediate gear between the infeed and outfeed stations of the feed works. It is one of the heftier parts on the machine. Later matchers went to a chain works here.

This is the second and third reduction. Later machines went to chain her too. Obviously a hard duty for the little pinion. It may also have been jacked up in speed a bit. The pulley on the opposite ens of the pinion shaft has been changed.

The matcher spindles I will wait for next year. I think dealing with the bottom head and the outfeed works will be enough for this season.

NEXT SEASON

Making a little progress. A friend loaned me a “talk and shoot” so now I am a movie making fool:

This is the bottom head. The babbitt bearings had been bypassed by adding the pillow blocks to the far sides of the machine frame. The journals are badly pitted. The caps were loose and allowed quite a bit of dirt and moisture in over the years. The knife bolts will be useless.

This is not an original head to the machine.

The upper platen and its posts. One post is a hinge that allows the platen to be swung away to allow access to the bottom head knives for setting. The opposite post rides with the platen when opened up and is secured with a large t-slot bolt and nut when closed. the elevation screws for raising the platen run through the center of the posts.

This is one of the pressure bars that set in front of and behind the lower head. A cube of steel has been welded onto the bottom of the end guide. I think a spring may have set in place of this originally but I am not sure.

The guides on the pressure bars fit in these two slots on the side of the bearing castings. I think the extra width was taken up by rubber or wood spacers selected to suit the throw of the knives being used. This is the bearing block that the hinge post sits astride. The t-slot cavity was not used on this side. the castings for both sides were the same.